DCPLD-Net: A diffusion coupled convolution neural network for real-time power transmission lines detection from UAV-Borne LiDAR data

The stable and reliable supply of electric power is strongly related to the normal social production. In recent years, power transmission lines inspection based on remote sensing methods has made great progress, especially using the UAV-borne LiDAR system. The extraction and identification of power transmission lines (i.e., con-ductors) from 3D point clouds are the basis of LiDAR data-based power grid risk management. However, existing rule-based/traditional machine learning extraction approaches have exposed some limitations, such as the lack of timeliness and generalization. Moreover, the potential of deep learning is seriously overlooked in RoW (Right of Way) LiDAR inspection tasks. Thus, we proposed DCPLD-Net: a diffusion coupled convolution neural network for real-time power transmission lines detection from UAV-borne LiDAR data. To implement efficient 2D convolution on 3D point clouds, we proposed a novel point cloud representation, named Cross Section View (CSV), which transforms the discrete point clouds into 3D tensors constructed by voxels with a deformed geo-metric shape along the flight trajectory. After the CSV feature generation, the encoded features of each voxel are treated as energy (i.e., heat) signals and diffused in space to generate diffusion feature maps. The feature of the power line points are thus enhanced through this simulated physical process (diffusion). Finally, a single-stage detector named PLDNet is proposed for the multiscale detection of conductors on the diffused CSV representa-tions. The experimental results show that the DCPLD-Net achieves an average F1 score of 97.14 % at 8 Hz detection frequency on RoWs inspection LiDAR datasets collected by both mini-UAV LiDAR and large-scale fully autonomous UAV power lines inspection robots, and surpasses compared methods (i.e. PointNet ++, RandLA-Net) in terms of F1 scores and IoU.